Sophie Schmidt’s take on North Korea

Eric Schmidt’s daughter Sophie accompanied Papa Goog on his recent North Korean trip and blogs about it. Much of it is stuff you normally hear in reports from first time visitors about the aloof, parental-like minders, zero-level access to the general public and tacky flower arrangements:

In case you were wondering where tacky fake floral arrangements went when they went out of style: they’re all in North Korea. (Ditto for gaudy light fixtures.)

In the lengthy post about the whole trip, she talks about the “e-Potemkin” village visit, where students stared intently at computers, though…

No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in–a noisy bunch, with media in tow–not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli. They might as well have been figurines.

Baby Goog has doubts whether North Korea’s display of tech savvy students was legit or simply put together for the visit.

We knew nothing about what we were seeing, even as it was in front of us. Were they really students? Did our handlers honestly think we bought it? Did they even care? Photo op and tour completed, maybe they dismantled the whole set and went home.

When one of our group went to peek back into the room, a man abruptly closed the door ahead of him and told him to move along.

Judging by what I can find in the internet, looks like Sophie is in her mid to late 20’s. She writes very well. Her style is both witty and insightful. She seems to have some familiarity with Koreans, but like ex-commander said, gets the naming convention wrong.

wangkon936

Several places on the internet is saying that Sophie is “teenage.” There is no way a teenager wrote that. Besides, she herself said she is “taking a break from grad school.”

I’m surprised that a 19 year old would remember “Wayne’s World,” which was released in 1992, three years before she was even born…

Cloudfive

“Singin in the Rain” and “The Wizard of Oz” were also made before we were born. Cable TV and internet, have you heard of it?

wangkon936

Yes. There are a bazillion channels but I only have presets to 20. Time Warner Classics, where most of the old movies are shown, is not one of them.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=783315197 Shelton Bumgarner

this trip has got to be one of the weirdest things to have happened in the last few months, if not years.

kay

All in all, her blog is a complete joke. I’ve been studying DPRK for nearly a year now and all she can do is complain like a little princess. “In
case you were wondering where tacky fake floral arrangements went when
they went out of style: they’re all in North Korea… And those beds? Hard as a rock…” I mean, does she even realize what other North Korean citizens sleep on at night? A little research and common sense would have saved her a lot of room for genuine enlightening from her trip.